Sensory Integration and Language Processing in Autism

自闭症的感觉统合和语言处理

• 批准号: 8271455
• 负责人: LAURA BETH SILVERMAN
• 金额: $ 14.96万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-06-01 至 2014-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8271455
• 关键词: Adaptive Behaviors; Address; Adult; Affect; Age; Auditory; Autistic Disorder; Behavior; Child; Communication; Complex; Comprehension; Computers; Data; Diagnostic; Disease; Emotional; Eye; Face; Functional disorder; Gestures; Goals; Hand; Heart Diseases; Height; Impairment; Individual; Language; Life; Lip structure; Measures; Methodology; Modality; Morphologic artifacts; Movement; Music; Nature; Ocular Fixation; Participant; Pattern; Perception; Performance; Play; Psycholinguistics; Reaction Time; Research; Resolution; Schedule; Semantics; Sensory; Sensory Process; Series; Severities; Social Interaction; Speech; Speech Sound; Speed; Stimulus; Symptoms; Testing; Time; Triad Acrylic Resin; Visual; Visual Illusions; Voice; base; clinically significant; daily functioning; design; developmental disease; instrument; language processing; musician; next generation; public health relevance; research study; semantic processing; sensory integration; social; sound; theories

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The ability to integrate information across sensory modalities is essential for successful social and communicative functioning in everyday life. Therefore impaired sensory integration abilities in autism could contribute to the core social and communicative impairments that typify the disorder. Although existing research describes specific sensory integration difficulties in autism, we do not yet know the full extent of the problem. Specifically, it is unclear whether language demands implicit in experimental tasks contribute to documented sensory integration dysfunction. It is also unclear whether study findings have ecological validity, given that tasks have generally involved computer-based stimuli using auditory beeps and flashes. The purpose of the proposed study is to characterize the nature of sensory integration abilities in autism, using a set of complex, ecologically valid stimuli that systematically vary language and social demands across three experiments. This study also tests whether sensory processing abilities have clinical significance and relate to severity of autistic symptoms and level of daily functioning. There are 4 primary aims: 1) To test sensory integration of supplementary gestures and speech, when integration is necessary for understanding (i.e., neither gesture nor speech provide adequate information for reference resolution); 2) to test integration of complementary gestures and speech, when integration supports comprehension but is not necessary for understanding (i.e., speech provides adequate information for reference resolution, but gesture offers supporting content); 3) to test sensory integration in the absence of language and social demands (i.e., integration of musical performance gestures and musical notes); 4) to assess whether there is a relationship between sensory integration abilities and symptom severity and daily functioning. Participants will be 30 individuals with high functioning autism and 30 well matched controls between the ages of 13 and 20. The time course of sensory integration will be measured using eye-tracking methodologies that record visual fixations during computer-based tasks involving gesture, speech, and musical notes. Additional measures of sensory integration abilities will include accuracy scores on video-based tasks, reaction time data, and note duration estimates on music perception tasks involving co-expressive performance gestures. This study is purely translational since it applies psycholinguistic and music perception methodologies to examine underlying impairments in autism. Findings from this study will have direct implications for understanding the core deficits in autism and for designing the next generation of sensory integration therapies. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Project Narrative Autism is a developmental disorder that affects approximately 1 in 150 children and is characterized by a triad of impairments in communication, social interaction, and restricted and repetitive behaviors. Current theories suggest that difficulties integrating information across sensory modalities may be at the heart of the disorder. This proposal describes a series of experiments designed to characterize audio-visual integration of gesture, speech and non-speech sounds in high-functioning autism to test whether these abilities are related to current functioning and expression of symptom severity in autism.

描述（由申请人提供）：跨感官方式整合信息的能力对于在日常生活中成功的社会和交流功能至关重要。因此，自闭症的感官整合能力受损可能有助于核心的社会和交流障碍，这些障碍代表该疾病。尽管现有的研究描述了自闭症中特定的感觉整合困难，但我们尚不知道问题的全部程度。具体而言，目前尚不清楚语言是否需要在实验任务中隐含的要求有助于记录的感官集成功能障碍。尚不清楚研究发现是否具有生态有效性，因为任务通常涉及使用听觉哔哔声和闪光的基于计算机的刺激。拟议的研究的目的是使用一组复杂的，生态上有效的刺激来表征自闭症中感觉整合能力的性质，这些刺激在三个实验中有系统地改变语言和社会需求。这项研究还测试了感官处理能力是否具有临床意义，并且与自闭症症状的严重程度和日常功能水平有关。有4个主要目的：1）当需要整合以进行理解时，测试补充手势和语音的感觉整合（即，手势和言语都没有提供足够的信息来解决参考分辨率）； 2）测试互补手势和语音的集成，当集成支持理解，但对于理解不是必需的（即语音提供足够的信息以解决参考分辨率，但手势提供支持内容）； 3）在没有语言和社会需求的情况下测试感官集成（即音乐表演手势和音符的整合）； 4）评估感觉整合能力与症状严重程度与日常功能之间是否存在关系。参与者将是30名患有高功能自闭症的人，并且在13至20岁之间的30个匹配的控件匹配。感官整合的时间过程将使用眼球跟踪的方法来测量，这些方法在涉及手势，语音和音符的基于计算机的任务中记录视觉固定的方法。感官整合能力的其他措施将包括基于视频的任务，反应时间数据以及涉及共表达性能手势的音乐感知任务的持续时间估计的准确分数。这项研究纯粹是转化的，因为它应用了心理语言和音乐感知方法来检查自闭症的潜在障碍。这项研究的发现将对理解自闭症的核心缺陷以及设计下一代感觉整合疗法具有直接影响。 公共卫生相关性：项目叙事自闭症是一种发育障碍，影响150名儿童中约1个，其特征是交流，社会互动以及受限制和重复的行为的三合会。当前的理论表明，跨感官方式整合信息的困难可能是该疾病的核心。该建议描述了一系列实验，旨在表征高功能自闭症中手势，语音和非语音声音的视听整合，以测试这些能力是否与自闭症中症状严重程度的当前功能和表达有关。